Bronze Magic (Book 1) (50 page)

Tarkyn blinked in surprise at the accolades. “I have to. I’m your forest
guardian and I swore an oath to protect you. Everyone is expecting me to
pull them through even while some of them hate me. But I would have
to say that I don’t see everything clearly. I definitely get things wrong
sometimes.”
Running Feet smiled, “I think I can attest to that. Perhaps I exaggerated
slightly but you do see the overall picture very well.”
“Thank you.” Tarkyn hesitated, “Maybe when this particular crisis is
over, I could help you get rid of the nightmares.” He shrugged a shoulder.
“Oh, why wait? Let’s do it quickly now. It’ll only take a couple of minutes.
Hang on. Am I going there or is Stormaway coming here? Could you
find out please – and when?”
“They will come here because your shelter is bigger. They’ll be here in
about ten minutes.”
Tarkyn smiled reassuringly at the woodman. “Are you willing to let
me try to get rid of your nightmares? I think I can do it with my forest
guardian powers.”
“Have you done it before?”
“No,” said Tarkyn, shaking his head, “but I have healed myself and
others. Of course if you do stop having nightmares, we’ll never know if it
was because you met up with me and put your demons to rest or whether
it was the healing. Other than that, you have nothing to lose. It doesn’t
hurt and it’s not unpleasant.”
“And you won’t turn green,” piped up a little voice.
Running Feet addressed Sparrow. “How do you know? Have you had
it done to you?”
Sparrow nodded. “Tarkyn gave us all more energy when we had
travelled through trees all day. It was quite nice, really.”
“Okay. Go on then,” agreed Running Feet. “What do I have to do?”
“Close your eyes. I’m going to put my hand on your shoulder. Now,
think about your dream and the fear in it. As you do, I will send healing
force into you. You will have to direct the force yourself to soothe the fear
in the memory and gradually dissipate the nightmare. Ready?”
When the woodman nodded, the forest guardian drew forth his
esse
and sent it into Running Feet. As Tarkyn watched, he could see Running
Feet’s face and shoulders relaxing. When the changes stopped, Tarkyn
asked, “Enough?”
Running Feet nodded and opened his eyes. He smiled and the tension
in his face that no one had particularly noticed, was no longer there. “It’s
gone. I know it has. Thank you. Even if you were the cause, you have also
been the cure. So you have made reparation, as you wanted to.”
ive people in a shelter made for one was proving to be logistical
nightmare. Every time anyone needed to move to keep a limb
from cramping up or going to sleep, the others had to re-arrange
themselves to accommodate them. Sparrow was getting tired of sitting on
Tarkyn’s or her dad’s lap but there wasn’t any room for her in between.
“Don’t worry, Sparrow,” Waterstone was saying, “The two biggest
people are leaving soon. Then we’ll have plenty of room.”
“Good,” said a seriously discontented little girl. “Then I can show you
my map and Running Feet can tell you all about it.” She gave a little huff,
“Well, I could have shown it to you, except you’re sitting on it and it will
be all smudged.”
“I’m sure you’ll be able to fix it up.” Waterstone glanced at Running
Feet who was sitting beside him while the sorcerer and the wizard planned
their tactics up the other end. “It’s good to see you again. We used to
spend a lot of time together before… well, before Tarkyn arrived. In fact,
you were always with Autumn Leaves and Thunder Storm and me. I
suppose that was why you were in the frontline when his lordship lost
his temper. We were just lucky he didn’t pick one of us instead of you…
Have you been all right?”
Running Feet turned his head to look at his old friend. “I am now but
I haven’t been. I couldn’t sleep for weeks afterwards. As soon as I would
start to drift off, I would wake with a jerk, thinking I was falling. Only
recently I’ve been able to get to sleep but I’ve always woken several times
a night with the same nightmare of being lifted up and then dropped.”
“Oh, you poor bastard! You must have been horrified when you
realised whose shelter you’d come into.”
“I was.” Running Feet grimaced, “What’s worse, by the time I realised,
I had already opened my big mouth and complained to Sparrow about
His Highness throwing his weight around.”
Waterstone glanced across at the prince. The woodman was pretty sure
that Tarkyn would have half an ear tuned to their conversation, but he
had no intention of letting that affect what he was saying to Running
Feet. “Did he get angry? … Silly question. Did he get angry for long?”
Running Feet shook his head. “In fairness, he came over threatening
for about thirty seconds. Then Sparrow pulled him up and he stopped.
Once he discovered who I was, he couldn’t have been nicer but he had
already backed off before that.” The woodman gave a small sigh, “I have
probably done him quite a bit of damage, you know. I’ve twisted and
derided anything good that we heard about him. And everyone was just
looking for reasons to hate him. So it wasn’t hard.”
“And now he’s forced you to send out his latest pronouncements.”
Running Feet gave a small smile. “No. He didn’t force me. He just
assumed I’d do it.” He grinned, “But he did order me to tell him if I get
any kickback from it.”
“Did he?” Waterstone raised his eyebrows. “In all the time I’ve known
him, he hasn’t given me a single order. Yes he did, just one. But that was
just something silly between him and me,” he added, making light of
something that actually mattered a great deal to him.
“So he was telling the truth about that, was he? He said he was making
it an order so that I didn’t have to choose.”
Waterstone shrugged, “You have to give it to him. That was a good
reason to give an order.” He paused, “By the way, just so you know,
Tarkyn never deliberately lies.”
Running Feet watched the prince in animated conversation as he said
slowly, “So I can take it that everything he told me about his time with
you people is true?”
“Yes. Of course it is. Only a fool would tell you lies that you could go
straight out and disprove.”
“He was courageous, wasn’t he, to throw himself on the mercy of the
forestals?”
Waterstone flicked a warning glance down at his daughter.“We were
not very happy with him about that,” he said tightly. “Tarkyn left in the
middle of the night and made sure we couldn’t follow him, to protect the
forest. But he didn’t consider how we would have felt at our failure to
protect him.” The woodman grunted, “Actually at that stage, he probably
thought we wouldn’t care. But he was wrong. We really don’t want to lose
him…any more than I would want to lose this little ratbag,” he added,
giving his daughter a squeeze and a tickle that made her twist and giggle
in his lap.
Running Feet smiled but quickly became serious again. “But how can
you stand having someone in charge all the time when we are all used to
having an equal say in things?”
Waterstone raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Tarkyn’s not in charge.
Whatever gave you that idea?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” replied Running Feet sarcastically, “Something
about his manner, the constant stream of edicts…the way he takes over
all the discussions.”
“He is at the heart of many discussions,” conceded Waterstone. “And
sometimes he does have an arrogant air about him, like last night for
example. But not all the time by any means.” The woodman smiled,
“And the stream of edicts? We all worked them out together during the
afternoon when everyone else was giving him the cold shoulder. We would
have included everyone but the morning session showed us that it wasn’t
viable. In case you didn’t notice, most of this morning’s edicts, as you
call them, were basically the recommendations made by Stormaway and
me. Our forest guardian is the only person who can command everyone’s
attention at a time when we can’t afford the luxury of long debates and
inaction. So he’s prepared to put up with being disliked to make sure we
can protect ourselves.”
Running Feet frowned. “He seems to have a strong tendency towards
self sacrifice.”
“He does when he feels it’s needed.” Waterstone shook his head. “It
worries me sometimes. Most of it stems from the oath he swore to us,
but the other morning, I’m not so sure about. From what I’ve been told,
I’d say he was right on the edge. He didn’t just give them the opportunity
to... you know.” He glanced down at his daughter, “I think he was almost
trying to talk them into it.” He looked steadily at his friend. “He was
devastated by what he saw as our betrayal of him. We’ve sorted it out now,
but he doesn’t give trust easily. You have no idea how hard it was to get
him to trust us after the repeated betrayals he has suffered.” Waterstone’s
voice developed a distinct edge to it. “I would not like to see anyone
develop a closeness with him and then betray his trust. They would have
his home guard to answer to.”
Running Feet’s eyes widened. “You really do care about him, don’t you?”
Waterstone shrugged, easing off the tension. “I wouldn’t let just anyone
into my family.”
“I suppose not. I was surprised by that, I must admit, but not so
much now as I was.” Running Feet paused. “In answer to your unspoken
question, I have no intention of undermining him any further than I
already have done.” The woodman glanced at his friend. “But I suppose I
would say that, wouldn’t I, whatever I was going to do?”
Waterstone considered him for a few seconds before replying. “No, my
friend, I don’t think you would. You have been honest about undermining
him in the past, after all. A lot has changed since we last met but a lot
remains the same and I hope you will be able to travel again with us
sometime.”
Running Feet surprised him by saying, “I would come with you now
if I could, but the prince has asked me to help reduce the resentment
among the other woodfolk. So I think I’ll do that first. But perhaps I may
join you further down the track.”
Before Waterstone had time to reflect on the astonishing change that
had been wrought in Running Feet’s attitude in the course of one short
morning, Tarkyn interrupted, “Right. We’re off. We need a strong tree to
draw strength from, so unfortunately that means getting wet.”
“Are you going to be focussing as hard as you did with me?” asked
Running Feet.
“Yes, probably harder.” The prince raised his eyebrows, “Why do you
ask?”
“Well, you can’t go off without protection if you’re going to lose sight
of your surroundings.” Running Feet grabbed his boots from next to the
doorway. “Wait. I’ll come with you.”
Waterstone raised his eyebrows, “He’s right, you know. I should have
thought of that.”
“What? Not the Fount of all Wisdom all the time?” quipped Running
Feet, as he pulled on his shoes.
“Who said I was?” demanded the woodman.
“I did,” said Tarkyn with a grin. He looked at Running Feet. “You’ll
need weapons. I don’t have any in here. Waterstone…?”
“Wait a minute. I’ll ask Autumn Leaves to come down with bows and
quivers and he can go with you and get wet too. Sadly, I’ll have to stay
here in the dry and mind Sparrow.” Waterstone promptly went out of
focus.
Shortly afterwards, Autumn Leaves arrived outside. “Come on, you
lot,” he shouted. “I’m getting soaked out here.”
When they emerged from the shelter, they found Ancient Oak had
also joined them.
“Hello, little brother,” he said as Tarkyn straightened up out of the
shelter to tower over him. “Mind if I come along? I want to watch your
magic display and I can guard your back at the same time.”
Tarkyn grinned at him. “The more the merrier, although I think you’re
mad. I wouldn’t come out in this, if I didn’t have to.” He pushed his
already soaking hair out of his eyes. “There are some big old oaks along
the stream this way. We’ll use one of them. At least their branches will
provide a bit of shelter.” He turned to Stormaway as he walked, “Are you
all right?”
The wizard nodded tetchily, “As good as I’m going to be, soaked to the
skin and cold.”
“I don’t suppose you know any warming or dry spells, do you?” asked
the sorcerer hopefully.
“Yes, I do, but we’re going to need all our power to fight this storm.”
“What about a shield?”
The wizard shook his head. “Come on. Just get on with it. We don’t
want to risk attracting the attention of whoever’s creating this storm by
using magic until we’re ready to challenge him or her.”
“All right. All right. I’m going as fast as I can without falling over in
the mud.”
The gentle stream of yesterday had turned into a raging torrent. In
several places, the prince and his little entourage had to skirt around areas
where the water had spilled over the banks of the stream.
Just as they reached the tree line, Lapping Water and Rainstorm
came running through the rain to join them. Tarkyn noted their arrival
with mixed feelings. He would have been glad to see either of them on
their own but their joint arrival sent a twinge of jealousy through him.
Resolutely stamping down on his feelings, he greeted them both warmly
and returned his attention to the task at hand.
Once the group reached the shelter of the trees, there was a noticeable
abatement in the force of both wind and rain.
“This one should do,” said Tarkyn, patting his hand against the trunk
of a tall sturdy oak. “Old, but not too old.”
The sorcerer stood beside the oak and placed his right hand against
the trunk. He placed his left hand on Stormaway’s shoulder and waited.
As the wizard closed his eyes and began to concentrate, Tarkyn looked
beyond him to see a ring of faces watching intently. “I don’t think I’m
going to be able to focus with you people staring at us like that. Besides,
I can’t see how you will have any hope of protecting us with your backs
to the rest of the world.”
“Good point,” said Autumn Leaves with a grin. “Come on. Let’s back
off a bit.”